The geometrical design of Harmondsworth Great Barn, Laurie Smith

For Laurie Smith, my friend

 

 Here are the front and back covers of Laurie Smith's last book.

 

 

 

The book is full of beautiful photographs of medieval framing  and the history of the conception and construction of these barns' frames - from felling the trees to placing the aisle braces. 

 

 

 

 

Of course, as the book is about Geometrical Design, it's also is full of daisy wheels and explanations of how they were used to design the Harmondsworth Great Barn. 
Laurie Smith was a Geometer, probably the best. He researched, wrote, and taught architectural (aka 'practical') geometry.  His language and his drawings are clear and engaging. 

 

 

 

It is a book to read, think about, study. It can be read by a novice as well as one well versed in geometric construction. Laurie's first Drawing 1 is titled: "Names and Locations of the Frame's Timbers". It's accompanied by a Chart: "Heavy timbers needed for the barn's section". From that basic introduction he explains the geometry of the barn. 

 

 

If at Photograph 39 you aren't sure what an 'arcade post' is, that first drawing is readily available. Using Photograph 39 Laurie explains how - with simple drawings, photographs, and the language of timber framing -  arcade posts, arcade plate jowls and buttresses fit together and why they are important. 

Then you understand Drawing 54.

 

 

Laurie doesn't just quote Vitruvius. He  spends time with those terse sentences in Book I, De Architectura, exploring as a Geometer, whose tools are a compass and rule, what Vitruvius means when he writes a "...plan is made by the proper successive use of compasses and rule". 

 

Laurie includes a carpenter's dividers, probably his own. He explains how they are 16.5 inches long, proportional to a rod which is 16.5 ft., and discusses 'stepping off'.

 

The geometric analysis of other great barns - The Barley Barn, Cressing Temple, Essex, and the Leigh Court Barn, Leigh, Worcestershire - is thorough and clear. 

The Notes and Credits are good reading, not a perfunctory listing of people and books. There is much here to absorb, come back to, consider again. 

 

   

Laurie finished the text, the geometric drawings, and the design in the summer of 2021. It was published that fall by Historic Building Carpentry in partnership with the UK Carpenters' Fellowship.*

He sent me a copy. I read it twice and told him how much I liked it. At his request I sent copies to a few of the timber framers in the States who had worked with him . 

 

I wrote that I'd put a review on my blog as I had before for his book on a barn in Devon. Here's the cover of that book.

My review is: https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2020/11/architectural-geometry-rare-geometrical.html

We enjoyed seeing that over 700 people had read that review. (now over 800)
We wondered how many had found his website through my blog post. He listed my blog on his website. I hadn't yet figured out  how to list his on mine. 
We talked about the geometry we'd  explored and learned about in the last 8 years.

 

Then Laurie died, December 2, 2021.

Now it's hard to read his books. I want to send an email across The Pond , "Yes, and what about....?" 

Then I remember that I read Durer, Serlio, Palladio and feel that they are speaking to me directly, 500+ years later.  Like them, Laurie's spirit is in his book. His words share his awe, his joy, and profound understanding of the geometry he saw, knew so well, and loved. 

*The Geometrical Design of the Harmondsworth Great Barn  is available through the Carpenters' Fellowship, ( https://carpentersfellowship.co.uk/) in the UK. I act as the distributor in the States. Please contact me if you would like a copy @ $25., including postage.

ARCHITECTURAL GEOMETRY, A Rare Geometrical Record from Rural Devon, by Laurie Smith

 

 

Laurie Smith has written a new book: ARCHITECTURAL  GEOMETRY  A Rare Geometrical Record from Rural Devon.  

Here's the cover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

The book is about the many daisy wheels and other geometry found on the walls of a Devon threshing barn.
The barn, shown here, is owned by Richard Westcott, editor of The Three Hares, a Curiosity Worth Regarding. 
The image is #3, page 4.  

Richard Westcott, Laurie Smith, and their friend, the photographer and film maker Chris Chapman, examined and recorded the geometry on the barn’s walls -  over 169 separate geometric shapes.

This photograph is of a "divider scribed daisy wheel from the wall's inner surface." 

The image is #4; the quote is from page 4.

They researched the barn’s history, took measured drawings and photographs, and explored the geometry.

Then Laurie wrote this book. 

 
Like all of Laurie’s books it has beautiful diagrams. Clear descriptions accompanying the diagrams explain how the daisy wheels still visible on its walls governed the siting, layout, and frame  of the barn.

Image 39, page 26

This is 1of 5 of Laurie's illustrations showing the development of the barn section.     

He includes examples of similar geometries give context and nuance. 

Here is one of 4 daisy wheel drawings for the geometry of the Barley Barn, Cressing Temple, Essex, UK

 Image 27, page 19.

 

 

 

 

Along the way Laurie explains terms and forms which we rarely use today, including the use of a perch, pole and rod as measuring devices.  

He introduces the reader to the Trivium, the Quadrivium, and Whirling Squares. 

Part of Image 63, page 50 

 

He writes thoughtfully - and with humor -  about apotropaic symbols.  

 

 

At the end of the book Laurie considers how all of that geometry - 169 separate images - came to be scribed on the interior walls of a rural threshing barn. He suggests a 'geometry school'.  I agree with his theory: I have also found incomplete geometries drawn on plaster walls here in the States.

His descriptions encourage the reader to examine the image, think about what he's written, look again, and understand the geometry.

Here is what he says about this double daisy wheel:

"The image shows the geometrical precision of the divider-scribing, the scars of the divider pin at the twelve points around the primary circle and the compound damage caused at the symbol's axis by the passing of twenty four arcs."

Image and quote, page 59 

 

The book's copyright page includes this introduction: 

"Laurie Smith is an independent early-building design researcher, specializing in geometric design systems. Because the medieval educational curriculum included geometry he uses geometric analysis to excavate and recover the design systems of the past, a process he thinks of as design archaeology. He lectures, writes, runs practical workshops  and publishes educational articles on geometrical design that are available from his website."

www.historicbuildinggeometry.uk  

e laurie@historicbuildinggeometry.uk  

 I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in historic construction and geometry. Copies can be purchased from Laurie Smith in the UK or from me ($20.00 postage paid) in the USA. 

 

*All the photographs: the barn, the hand and the daisy wheel, and the 12 pointed daisy wheel in the barn shown here are by Chris Chapman, copied by me from the book for the purpose of this review. 

The geometry is by Laurie Smith, also copied with his permission.